Stussy

Stussy is a clothing company founded by Shawn Stussy in California during the early 80’s. The brand initially was the aimed at surfer and the casual beach culture but quickly the preferred wear for the hip-hop and street scenes. Shawn grew up in the surfing scene of southern California in the 60′s. He was a constant  surfer from a young age, and got his first job shaping surfboards. At 24 he started his own surfboard company. Making boards was a passion for him, but he saw more to be gained from the surfing lifestyle. Stussy partnered with a friend to begin selling it’s products first in stores then later in branded retails stores. Some of there first products were t-shirts, shorts and caps which were branded with Stussy’s hand scribed logo.

The brand has been credited with helping popularize the hip-hop and more so the DJ scenes. The company’s offerings were taken up by skaters, hipsters, artists and the subculture population of Southern California. Stussy said at the time, “Everybody calls it surf wear, or urban street wear, or surf street… I don’t name it, and I don’t name it on purpose.”  By ‘88 Stussy was traveling throughout Europe and soon after the company’s brand began to be embraced by the hip-hop crowd. Stussy hats became hot commodities. It was in 1990 that the company broke out of California in a big way with the opening of their Soho, NY boutique. The success was almost immediate and lead to other retail outlets around the globe.The brand continued to open successful locations throughout the 90s. The early 90’s say there revenue reach $20 million. Later, the brand was sold throughout the United States at specialty boutiques and department stores alongside other high-end clothing. Outside of the US, the company’s products are found in shops alongside clothing from high-end international designers.

This season Stussy plans to go back to their roots in a major way this fall with their “1980″ hats, and printed t-shirts being reintroduced. The brand has definitely been getting a lot of buzz centered around their fall line. Getting the approval of several rappers and artist along the way. Some of the noise could also connected to the fact that Shawn Stussy is also starting a new brand, called S/double.

Today the Stussy brand encompasses a wide range of clothing for men and women. Including in their product lines are hats, shorts, hoodies, tee shirts, accessories, jeans,shirts and jackets. They also include collections for watches and exclusive limited produced items such as special tee’s and hats.